Author Archives: Brad Johnson

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February 22, 2013

Managing from India – 5 tips

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I’m writing this post from Mysore, India where I’m working for the entire month of February.

Coming here was a nail-biter for me, but not because of typical western concerns like bedbugs, heat, smog, or monsoons. What terrified me was the idea of traveling all this way and not being able to do my job effectively. I oversee operations and finances at Grio, participate in business development, and am currently managing two projects. If anything were to prevent me from working, I would need to grab the next flight and go home – arriving a minimum of 40 hours later!

read on

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September 20, 2012

How to Tell When a Meeting is Pointless

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Lame Meeting

Meetings. When used correctly, they lead to synchronized teams, informed stakeholders, and better requirements. They help to identify issues affecting an organization. They’re great for resource planning, sharing vision, and all kinds of useful stuff.

A clear, focused meeting energizes the participants. These meetings are a force for good. These meetings make the office smile.

Then there are those other meetings. 

read on

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May 5, 2012

From Hatebook to Poll.li

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Today Grio launched a new website, a new blog, and a free product.

I’m going to tell you about the product, which is called Poll.li (see http://poll.li).

Simply put, Poll.li is a way of voting on content using emoticons. You can think of it as a like button with more variety. Similar to like, Poll.li can be used as a voting mechanism for web users.

read on

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January 24, 2012

Scrum is like 20th Century Politics (Part 3 of 3)

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In Part 1 and Part 2, we saw the forces of extreme right and extreme left savage two organizations in the name of scrum. One company goose stepped about in Luftwaffe jumpsuits. Another built a gulag for stakeholders who would question its developers-only central planning meetings.

In both cases, malevolent propagandists diverted the team’s purpose, and product progress all but ceased. The right was called wrong. The in progress was called done.  The 1 was called 0. User stories were enigmatic and undecipherable.

read on

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September 26, 2011

Name Recognition

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Dear reader:

After being heads down in the code for quite a while now, we decided to dedicate a little time to sharpening our writing skills. In the coming weeks you should see a number of contributions covering a wide variety of topics. We’ll kick things off today with a seemingly pedestrian subject: the naming classes, files, variables, packages, etc.

read on

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August 17, 2010

Three OCR Software Vendors Compared

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I recently evaluated three vendors of OCR technology for a C# .NET desktop app. Basically the software needed to accurately read and report the results of scanned “bubble” tests – the kind that you took as a kid for your Iowa tests (yes I’m from the midwest) and SAT’s. In addition to reading bubbles, the software needed to accurately read barcodes, OCR or printed characters (the test takers name) and ICR or hand-written characters (for hand-written answers).

read on

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April 8, 2010

Kenmore Live Studio FaceBook Application Released

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Grio, in partnership with Fluid, have released a Facebook application where fans of Kenmore can go to interact with Kenmore's Live Studio event. Kenmore's Live Studio contains a live video feed of special events, rsvp to these special events, watch past events, and chat with other Kenmore fans. 
The application was built using Adobe Flex, PHP and hooks into the Facebook API, the YouTube API (data and video) and Twitter API.

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February 2, 2010

Installing an ISO file from Mac OSX to a parallels Windows instance

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Yesterday I attempted to install Visual Studio 2008 from a DVD onto my
mac parallels Windows 7 instance. After sitting back and admiring the
pictures of happy Microsoft programmers provided by the VS
installation software, I heard a ticking sound coming from my
computer.  After several minutes, the install crashed. Some sleuthing
proved that the disk was scratched and worthless – a typical Monday.

read on

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November 21, 2009

Grio partners with Clientshow

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Grio is helping to develop applications for ClientShow that will allow creative professionals to manage their clients and pitch their work. Launch of the system is targeted for early 2010.

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November 19, 2009

Grio to develop systems for Teachscape

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Grio has signed an agreement with Teachscape to develop education-related software that enhances the learning experience. Teachscape was founded in 1999 and is the leader in providing solutions that drive increasing levels of student achievement.